Fauna: Stranger than Fiction

Joan Fontcuberta describes himself as a “teller of mistruths.” He grew up in Catalonia under General Franco, at a time when propaganda and censorship helped create a culture of mistrust. Since the late Seventies, he has concerned himself with photography and its role as a reliable carrier of truth. His mantra is simple: question everything. “People need to be sceptical of images that influence our behaviour and way of thinking,” he says.

This week a small retrospective of his work opens at the Media Space within London’s Science Museum, an institution whose sometimes fantastical holdings are perfectly suited to his subject matter. The six bodies of work represented here span three decades and are loosely connected by the natural and spiritual world. The show is unified by its concern with how images are manufactured and exchanged, authenticated and controlled – ideas that seem particularly poignant in our increasingly digitised age.

In the video above, the Fontcuberta explains the thinking behind his fantastical creations.